untjim1995

Rivalries are funny--as a matter of fact, we have seen how the bigger opponents look down on the other one---until they start beating them regularly. Think about this: If you ask any UT fan who their biggest rival is, immediately it is OU. But Texas was A&M's fiercest rival and OU is OSU's fiercest rival. But to Tech, A&M was their biggest rival. On this list, Baylor is TCU's biggest rival, but SMU loathes TCU, while UNT loathes SMU, and UTSA hates us. The college football totem pole of existence isn't just about conference affiliation...

I hate Portland State...

Its pretty much dead-on. Our progress is dependent on improving recruitment of Tx HS players--if we can do that, to the point of beating our TX CUSA West opponents and TX State for recruits, we will be much better in the years to come. We have to start somewhere--and winning in the locker rooms and living rooms would be an excellent place to begin this process of building up a FBS roster. Because right now, we have a FCS roster, no matter how much some here don't want to admit that. Just beat Butt Cookman and somebody else, while also avoiding G5 blowouts, and I'll fully believe that we have started our pathway upward. But if we don't, its possible that we haven't hit rock bottom yet--and that includes the destruction at the hands of Portland State. Its why the BCU game is so important--we have to beat them and show that we aren't so far behind that we cannot even beat a FCS school at home with our new coach and new systems.

What if it means replacing Army with Texas State and then leaving the FCS games for opponents in a home-and-home series like BYU, AFA, or Boise State? Because, to me, I will never attend a game at Apogee that involves an FCS opponent, unless we are FCS, too. But I would gladly accept 5 home games if it means that I can travel to Dallas for a pseudo home game against SMU, while getting BYU or Boise State at home.

Hey, Lifer and 90, you know you can both PM each other, correct?

I saw that and I think its great for both of them. And you don't have to worry about Texas State buying out the contract. I can only imagine what its gonna look like around here when SMU stops this series after four games. Only way it doesn't occur is if they cannot get any better than they are right now, which is possible. If Chad Morris fails there, they will still need us for a winnable opponent and a decent draw to their games. Otherwise, I fully expect that we will see this series go away after 2017, allowing us the opportunity to get with Texas State and schedule them in OOC.

Yes, Texas, OU, KU, and probably WVU are all parts the other power conferences will be interested in, particularly the first three. You have three kings of the revenue sports, two AAU members (UT, KU), OU has the whole most National merit Scholars thing for their academic asterisk, and all three have national followings and deliver good to great TV markets. My guess is that the Big XII will expand with BYU and Cincy--the northern schools want a solid market to get into for recruiting, while WVU needs a lifeline to the conference. BYU will bring in great football and basketball, along with a lot of eyeballs. UH should be doing all they can to get into the Pac or ACC, if possible. I just don't see how UH gets into the Big XII with the city they have already being covered by the conference. BYU and Cincy can be sold, fairly easily I might add, to the network executives. UH needs to try and use this time to get out west before Texas and OU decide to try again out there. They need to sell the Pac Network on Houston's TV market and Texas recruiting. I still think that is their best chance of being P5 one day.

This.

Believe it or not, it would probably serve our program more to be playing Texas State regularly, even with SMU on the schedule, too. I would rather be playing Texas State than the FCS schools, even if it meant playing 5 home games in the seasons we play at SMU. Texas State has a $hit ton of alumni and they would bring more fans to the games at Apogee than SMU ever will. Plus, we recruit heavily against Texas State across the state, more than we do against SMU, both right now and in previous seasons.

I hate that site--there are about 10 posters there, living in the pre-death penalty days. What drives me more crazy is how many local DFW media members think they should be right up there with TCU because of their history and location. Unfortunately, Dallas doesn't care anything for SMU like Ft. Worth does for TCU--never have, actually. Because of this, SMU will never move upward--as in never. They are as high as they can ever go. Granted, its higher than us, but that's our fault, not theirs. SMU fans bitch about their SWC days getting pulled out from underneath them, but that was going to happen because of the small size of that school and not being able to pull their weight with the public schools in the region. I always go back to the fact that SMU led the other privates to block us from the SWC--we still had a lot going for us and we should have called the old Big Eight to inquire about joining there. Instead, we dropped a nuclear bomb on the program--if we hadn't done this, we would be in the AAC, at least, today. Its very, very possible that we are in the Big XII right now--not even kidding, either. The Big 8 kept all of its members when they formed the big XII. Its very, very possible that UT, A&M, and Tech would have joined the big Eight if we were already there. BTW before you think this is an empty lament, you think about the late 70s and early 80s and how TV was about to get changed greatly with the NCAA. The Big Eight had no Texas TV sets to attract, except when Texas played OU. Imagine how much a team that had been ranked recently within the DFW market with a large enrollment could have swayed the folks in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Then think about what sport went thru the roof at the same time--college hoops. We had a facility that easily could have been among the top venues in the Big Eight at the top. Kansas, K-State, Iowa State, Mizzou, and OU spent most of the 70s and 80s being very, very good. How fun would it have been to have seen Waymon Tisdale, Danny Manning, Rolando Blackmon, and so many others of that time coming here to play conference games? Because it would have been a reality if the leadership of the university at the time didn't giddily give up. It has cost us so much with alumni and potential fans in the DFW area over the years because they just decided to follow the regional Big XII/SEC powers instead, even with degrees from here. To me, that is MUCH worse than SMU crying about their Death penalty program that earned that position from completely ignoring and hiding from the NCAA.

I grew up in Ft. Worth, following and loving SWC Football in the 70s and 80s. Trust me, TCU fans loathe SMU, even though they look down on them today. Trust me, when I was a kid, SMU was the exact opposite of TCU, hating them while dominating them. In this region of the country, you have several rivalries that have deep-seeded hate. It requires you to know college football beyond 200, though. Texas-OU Texas-A&M OU-OSU Tech-A&M (this used to be really ugly) TCU-SMU A&M-LSU (this is an old rivalry that has been rekindled by the SEC--they used to play each other to open the season pretty regularly in decades past) Texas-Arkansas--this was, by far, the best rivalry in the old SWC days--Arky HATES Texas Baylor--TCU--really heated up in the last few years, but it is deep-seeded in old SWC hatred. Rice-UH --Bayou Bucket Rivals UNT-SMU--its mostly one-sided, because we hate that they have had so much influence on keeping us down from a conference standpoint, but SMU hates us because they have fallen so much that they aren't rivals with Texas anymore, but North Texas instead. I don't blame them for feeling this way because: UNT-UTSA--they got a free rivalry with us because of CUSA membership built on being in a big city and being supported by that market. While we tripped all over ourselves for decades, when UTSA decided they wanted to be a player at this level, it went very smoothly, with no one there to block their progress. Meanwhile, we cannot believe that they are where we are after we have played football for 100 years and they have played it for about 5-6 years. I actually think its a solid rivalry to have for us, but I also believe that Texas State should be playing us and UTSA every year. When SMU drops us here in that series, Wren Baker should call Texas State immediately.

Denton loves SWC teams--we will get 24k

No post is worthless...unless it's from Ryan Munthe or CougarQueen

UH will always have large monies alums that give back to the athletic department because of the energy industry in Houston, as well as the medical profession they get to tap into in Houston. UH has alumni who have seen the Coogs win at a high level, from the 60s thru today in football and basketball. And their university puts revenue athletics on a pedestal for their window to the school. We don't have anything like that--never have...

I saw it and it was great. But I lived the SMU and SWC as a young guy. When SMU was at their height, back in the early 80s and having no idea they were paying players, I loved watching them run the option...McIlhenny may have been one the best option QBs I ever saw, although pitching to Dickerson and James was probably pretty easy. But the cheating was over the top and they got what they deserved. I just wish the NCAA didn't look at them as if they punished them too hard and still used the death penalty on other cheaters.

Everybody's coeds in the south look great in those outfits...

They provided the content for the best 30 for 30 I've ever seen...

Hence the reason I used "if" before that collection of words... I hope they lose every game, but I suspect that they are a 4 win team, with the talent they have and the coaching mindset that Morris is trying to instill in them. Either way, 2017 is his last year there--he's either moving on up or he's getting bought out by the smut cash.

The real travesty here is that the schedule is basically shot for years because of the stupid philosophy of matching a bodybag game up with a home game against a FCS bought opponent. So, looking out, we get these games in OOC: 2016: SMU, Butt Cookman, @ Florida, and @Army 2017 Lamar, @SMU, @ Iowa, Army 2018 SMU (if they haven't bought out the series) @Army, @ Arkansas, Incarnate Word 2019 Abilene Christian, @ SMU (assuming they haven't bought out the series), Army, @ Wisconsin 2020 SMU (assuming they haven't bought out the series), @ Texas A&M, Houston Baptist, @ Army It probably won't matter by then, as I suspect the P5s won't be playing anyone in the lower G5s or FCS by then, but these future schedules could have EASILY been played out decrepit Fouts. Seriously, Butt Cookman, Lamar, Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian, and Houston Baptist are just pathetic opponents to schedule. They give you absolutely nothing of value for your program. There are thousands of people who refuse to step into Apogee as long as the opponent is at this level. Apogee was sold to us as being a game-changer, that it would allow us to host bigger and better programs. Instead, all we have seen it do is host teams that Fouts could have easily hosted without any problem. It shouldn't have been this way...

If SMU is truly on the rise, the will win 4 or more games. I can see them winning against us, Liberty and Tulane, so they need to steal one more against the other teams on their schedule. They aren't anywhere near competing with Baylor, TCU, and UH on paper. So that leaves Temple, Memphis, USF, ECU, Navy, and Tulsa--if they win one or more of these, I'd expect that SMU will enter 2017 as a favorite in the AAC and will probably see Chad Morris coach his final year in Dallas before going upward to a P5 school.

Did you watch us play last year? Do you know how few scholarship players we have on the roster, compared to every other G5 team we play? Besides this, don't worry about wins/losses this year. Just watch the guys play and see how they compete while learning a brand new system, as well as how the coaches handle themselves since we have a brand new head coach and OC that have never held these positions before.

KSU had to start winning somewhere, but they also knew that they had the revenues from visits to Manhattan from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Okie State, Colorado, Kansas, Mizzou, and Iowa State to allow them to bring in 1-aa teams and the dregs of 1-A for home games every year. We don't have the luxury when you get the following teams to Denton in conference play: Rice, UTSA, UTEP, La Tech, Southern Miss, MUTS, Marshall, F_U, Charlotte, ODU, UAB, and WKU. And that's after we had ULM, ULL, NMSU, Arkansas State, Troy, Utah State, and Idaho as other conference mates in the last 15 years.

Then our current schedule is perfect for you. We will never play anyone in the next decade that will make us feel like its a neutral site game or worse. SMU has had that happen when they have hosted us, A&M, Tech, OSU, Baylor, and TCU over the years at Ford Stadium. I have said it before, but I would so be on the phone with T. Boone and looking at scheduling a series with OSU, playing here in the years that TCU plays in Stillwater. They are the only Texoma school that doesn't play a game in DFW every year, which I know they would be interested in doing. If you had a year where you played at bodybag, at SMU, home against OSU, and a road game at another G5, that would still be better for UNT than what we do now. Playing at SMU gives you the chance to improve the schedule and still give your fans a chance to watch a game in the Metroplex that is basically a home game still. If the UNT schedule has any FCS team on it, its just a waste. I'd love a schedule like this going forward, assuming that we have to continue getting whored out in a bodybag game: @bodybag home game against OSU, BYU, Mizzou, Colorado, KU, KSU, Boise State, Tulsa, UH, or Tulane @ SMU @ one of the opponents listed above Then, the following year: SMU @bodybag home game against one the teams listed above @ one of the teams listed above. If you feel that a home game against a FCS spare is better because you get 6 times to watch us play at Apogee every year, you are just being short-sighted. Those games don't do one thing good for the program in our current situation. Even if we beat Butt Cookman, nobody will care. But if we lose to them, its just a severe kick to the crotch, one tat is easy to use against us on the recruiting trail and with the media. Its just colossally bad that RV was allowed to schedule the way he did with these FCS games for years ahead. It is a price we will be paying for many years to come, both as a fanbase and as a team.

Baylor is the perfect school for the NCAA to come down hard upon. Small private school in the South, playing in a conference with big public giants, and an absolutely no-brainer of a case to punish them. Baylor is going to be a piñata for the NCAA...

That's a bit ambitious for the expectation for road wins, in my opinion. Most teams lose 3 or more games a year on the road. Assuming we always play 6 road games, 1 of which is a bodybag game, with 5 others against G5s, I'd like to see us get to a point where we win 2-3 road games a year. Combine that with losing only a game or two at home and you get to 6-8 wins fairly regularly. But, heck even the best NCAA teams lose a game or two on the road each year.